Words, Words, Words

One of my favorite moments in Shakespeare is the scene early in "Hamlet" when Polonius encounters the supposedly mad Danish prince perusing a book, and asks him "What are you reading, my Lord?" To which Hamlet replies "Words, words, words." It is one of those tricky lines that challenges every actor to put his own spin on them, and scholars to throw in their thoughts.

I bring this up because of the recent bout with words evidenced by Sarah Palin, she of the "refudiate" tweet, who later compared her proclivity to making up words to that of Shakespeare. Her gall level, already stratospheric, shot out into space with that one, though full disclosure, I was somewhat relieved to learn that she had actually heard of Shakespeare.

Now she is not the first one to make up a word that sounds right but isn't one of the milion-or-so that officially constitute the English language. In an earlier blog from 2005 I suggested the word "clut" as a nearly profane but descriptive combination of "clod" and "slut." (Ironically, though that was before Palin was known, that word could well apply to her). But my portmanteaus always come with an apology and an explanation. Hers come with her usual hauteur and indignation of a self-important proto-demagogue.

Her previous attempt at word coinage, the "lamestream media" has not exactly caught on, even on Fox (where it also applies most descriptively). Incidentally, great job on the Shirley Sherrod, case, Andrew Breitbart and Rupert and Roger and all you Fox wingnuts. Lamestream is kind of hard to say, even with a mealy mouth.

There is a political tradition of malapropisms entering into our lexicon. The most notable was the word "normalcy," which was accidentally invented by Warren G. Harding when he misread the word "normality" in a speech. Now given that Harding is considered one of the worst presidents, except for George W--he of "misunderestimate"--this kind of whmsical word invention is not necessarily a badge of honor.

But it doesn't matter to Sarah and her adoring acolytes. Nothing she can say can be wrong, she is so pretty and so gifted and so experienced and...oh, I'm sorry I drifted off there. What bugs me most about conservatives and Republicans in general is their utter inability to admit to even the slightest mistake, as though to do so is a sign of weakness. In the recent case of Ms. Sherrod, after the heinous out-of-context character assassination was revealed to be bogus, all the Democrats who, very lamely, bowed to the immediate Outrage have simply admitted their mistake and apologized to the offended party. This includes Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack, President Obama, and the NAACP. But the purveyors of the lie? Hardly a peep (though at least Bill O'Reilly issued some half-assed regret before gong on another racist tear). Breitbart defends himself as the aggrieved party and that jawdropping clut Ann Coulter maintains that Breitbart was "set-up." Extraordinary.

When you think that the foremost women in Republican politics now are Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, and Ann Coulter--with Michelle Malkin thrown in, I guess, It's hard not to simply press your palms tight against your face and emit a Scream, like in Munch's painting. No words, real or manufactured, can suffice.